§ 34. Sir WILLIAM BULLasked the First Lord of the Admiralty if the institutions of civil, electrical, and mechanical engineers were invited to obtain picked men for the divisional Engineer units and Signal company of the Royal Naval Division recently formed, and if a number of labourers and other recruits without engineering knowledge were afterwards added to these units on the same terms of enlistment; and, if so, will he explain why these unskilled recruits have been embodied in the units raised for the performance of technical duties which the engineering recruits were asked to undertake?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAThe institutions were invited, as stated, and provided a considerable number of recruits, but owing to the nature of the work required of the Engineer company, which includes manual and unskilled labour, and also care of horses, other recruits whose qualifications are suitable have to be taken.